WASHINGTON -- House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra said Sunday (Feb. 6, 2005) he agrees with a Justice Department decision not to prosecute anyone involved in the fatal 2001 downing of a plane carrying West Michigan missionaries in Peru.

But Gloria Luttig, the mother of plane crash victim Veronica "Roni" Bowers, of Muskegon, said today she is stunned to learn about the three-year investigation, which was not disclosed by the government until Saturday (Feb. 5, 2005).

"I had no idea the CIA was being investigated," the Florida resident said. "I would like some answers. There is something behind this. Why would they investigate the CIA? In my heart, I've always known there was something wrong with this story. All we ever got was appeasement."

Federal prosecutors announced Saturday they ended their criminal inquiry into whether at least four Central Intelligence Agency officers lied to lawmakers and their agency superiors about a clandestine antidrug operation. The effort ended in 2001 with the downing of a Cessna carrying Jim and Veronica Bowers, their two children and a pilot.

Veronica Bowers, 35, was holding her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, when their plane was misidentified as a potential drug-smuggling aircraft and fired upon by a Peruvian air force jet. A bullet struck Bowers in the back, killing her and the baby.

Bowers' husband, Jim, 37, son, Cory, 8, and the pilot survived the crash that followed the shooting.

Hoekstra, R-Holland, said he is not surprised by the conclusion of the previously undisclosed Justice Department investigation.

"I'm not an attorney, but I have listened to the transcripts and I've been briefed on it a number of times," he said. "I didn't see anything that would have pointed to anything that could have, or should have, been prosecuted.

She said she could accept her daughter's death if someone said: "'We made a mistake, it was our fault.' I'd probably reach over and shake his hand, and say, 'Thank you for being honest.' I've always believed there was something more behind this. You don't just shoot down planes like that."

The conduct under scrutiny was part of a CIA operation authorized by President Clinton beginning in 1994 to help the Peruvian air force prevent drug flights over the country.

Hoekstra lobbied the Department of State to pay the Bowers family an $8 million settlement, which was paid in 2002.

The Justice Department's decision ended an inquiry that current and former government officials say was the most serious to focus on the conduct of CIA officers since the Iran-contra affair in the 1980s.

More broadly, the inquiry had been seen within the CIA as a message that employees could be held accountable for operations that go awry, at a time when agency officers are coming under scrutiny in other areas, such as the interrogation and detention of terror suspects.

"A criminal investigation is something that breeds a risk-averse culture at CIA," said a Bush administration official familiar with the case.

But Hoekstra said the inquiry was necessary.

"You do have to hold the various agencies accountable for their actions," he said.

-- The New York Times and Press writer Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood contributed to this story.